| Posnansky has shown that the
people who created this statue knew a lot about
astronomy. They had discovered that 'summer' (= the time between
spring and autumn equinox) was shorter than 'winter' (= the time
between autumn and spring equinox). The orbit of the earth around the sun is not a circle but an ellips and north of the equator 'summer' is longer (at present) than 'winter', while the opposite rule governs the seasons south of the equator. Consulting my almanac for 2004 I find that 'summer' has 186 days, while 'winter' has 180 days. The exact period varies between the years because the calendar counts in whole days. The slow wobble of the earth's axis makes the cross move, the cross which is written by drawing one straight line between the solstices and another between the equinoxes. This movement was known by ancient peoples. In spite of the knowledge of the year's true length (ca 365,25 days) the people by the lake of Titicaca decided to use a Sacred Year with only 354 days. That is the result I arrive at after having analyzed the skirt around Pachamama. All the sun-signs are visible, at least partly. None is totally obliterated. Posnansky, though, arrived at 364 days, a number I cannot endorse. I can see 94 ('winter') + 83 ('summer') = 177 double sun-signs on the skirt, and 2 * 177 = 354. Furthermore: the visual harmony of the skirt cannot tolerate as many as 364. The skirt is shown on next page.
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